Madonna Being Sued For Use Of Swastika Image In France

Madonna‘s no stranger to controversy, but this year she’s been particularly effective at entangling herself in headline-grabbing pseudo-scandals (see, for example, the nipple incident). Her latest attempt, though, may get her sued: the right-wing French political party Front National says it will sue her for depicting its leader with a Nazi swastika on her forehead.

One of Madonna’s video montages during her Saturday (July 14) show in Paris featured a video in which Marine Le Pen, leader of the FN party, was shown alongside conservative political figures from around the world, including former U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The video, which accompanied Madonna’s performance of “Nobody Knows Me”, then shows Le Pen with a swastika overlaid on her head.

A member of the party told Reuters they’ll be bringing a lawsuit (with the charge of “public insult”) against the pop star in the next couple of days. After that “Vogue” lawsuit, we hope Madge has her lawyer on retainer (and on-call).

But then, she may well have seen this coming. Madonna has shown the video in previous concerts: indeed, after it was seen at the start of the tour in Tel Aviv, Le Pen publicly dared her to continue — and spat in her face. “If she tries that in France, we’ll see what happens,” Le Pen said at the time, and then threw in: “It’s understandable when aging singers who need publicity go to such extremes.”

It’s not clear that Madonna took the bait so much as simply let the publicity play out, just as she has with earlier “scandals” during her current album and tour cycle. She’s covered her sex and drugs bases (the drug-referencing MDNA title, the nipple incident) and the always fertile diva battle territory (the Lady Gagasmackdown).

Do you think Madonna went too far this time? Tell us in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.